Spoilers ahead for the February 19 episode of Survivor: Winners At War on CBS.
The latest episode of Survivor: Winners At War saw another member of Tribe Sele get the axe, and the ousting wasn't without its share of drama and mistakes. Danni Boatwright was voted out of Tribe Sele, which comes as a bit of a shock. Not because she played the game with any level of savviness in the February 19 episode, but because longtime Survivor host Jeff Probst named her as his sleeper favorite to win Winners at War. So who's next?
Let's look at what happened in this episode. Tribe Sele didn't ace the challenge, and tensions were high when the time came for the Sele castaways to start wheeling and dealing to figure out who would leave. Danni Boatwright quickly emerged as somebody most of Sele was willing to vote out. She made her first mistake of the hour when she started talking to Ethan Zohn about old-school alliances in front of Ben Driebergen! That was her less egregious mistake of the episode, though.
The bigger mistake came when the heat was on and she approached Boston Rob Mariano to try and make an alliance to vote out Parvati Shallow, a.k.a. Boston Rob's closest ally in Winners At War. Despite a couple members of Tribe Sele voting to oust Parvati, Danni easily got the majority and was sent to the Edge of Extinction. Given how Danni sabotaged herself so early in the game, why was she a favorite of Jeff Probst's?
Back before Survivor: Winners At War premiered, Jeff Probst explained to EW that he considered Danni Boatwright a "sleeper" because she could be "passed by early on" rather than targeted. According to Probst, the rest of the castaways underestimating Danni and not considering voting her out could keep her in the game, and she "could win it."
Not so much, as it turns out! Danni was arguably doomed from the moment she tried to turn Boston Rob on Parvati, since Boston Rob clearly has control of Sele at this point. In fact, Boston Rob more or less ordered the rest of Sele to dump out the contents of their bags at Tribal Council to reveal who had the immunity idol.
Only Adam Klein spoke out in protest, and everybody did it! Denise Stapley did manage to conceal that she had the idol, but it was clear that what Boston Rob says, goes at this point. No wonder Jeff Probst has said that Boston Rob is the first one he would have wanted voted out if he was competing in Winners At War!
At this point, Survivor: Winners At War feels like anybody's game. Boston Rob and Sandra Diaz-Twine are arguably the biggest threats, but the champion castaways know to keep an eye on those two powerhouses. If Danni Boatwright could get the axe so early in a season, though, is anybody safe?
See what happens next when new episodes of Survivor: Winners At War air Wednesdays at 8 p.m. ET on CBS. The season premiere didn't generate killer numbers for CBS, but Survivor already airs on a competitive night, and anything can happen. Survivor wasn't up against one of its usual Wednesday night competitors on February 19, so maybe its numbers will be up this week!
